Tropical countries in Africa, especially Nigeria, lay emphasis on management and protection of forest through forest reservation. This process of reservation has significant social, economic and environmental impacts. Reservation of forests, especially urban and peri-urban forests, gives rise to benefits in terms of conservation of biodiversity. The bio-diversity of plants and animals provides goods and services. The myriad of goods and services provided by urban and peri-urban forest have been widely reported (Osemeobo et al., 1986; Adekunle, 1998; FAO, 2001, ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/y0353e/y0353e00.pdf), they are timber and non-timber based: examples include sawn wood, fuel wood, medicines, leaves, roots, bark, mushroom, wild animals and geological materials such as sand, gravels, stones and soils. However, the forests were hitherto valued as land banks rather than a valuable resource of its own right providing essential goods and services for livelihood generation. Consequently, the forest is a key com- ponent is a natural resource base of any community or country especially in developing countries. This is particularly so in third world countries located within tropical forest formation including Nigeria where most of the countries have large rural populations depending on natural resource exploitation for their livelihood. According to CIFOR (2005), apart from the forest meeting the economic needs of the rural people for food and shelter, tropical forests are also a major source of both industrial wood products and fuelwood. WCMC (2000) reported that in Nigeria, rainforest is home to over 1 417 known species in fauna and at least 4 715 species of vascular plants. Therefore, forests have the highest species diversity of any terrestrial ecosystem in the world. Forests therefore provide employment for people and contribute to the GDP of the nation. Forest resources in Nigeria are distributed on state basis with eight major forest types (Beak Consultant, 1998). As one of the states with forest resources, Ogun State has forest reserve that falls under the purview of a peri-urban forest. According to Wiggins and Holt (2000), peri-urban was described as areas beyond the closed settled limits of any urban area but are sufficiently close enough to the urban area to have frequent and substantial interactions with the urban economy. Close enough was taken to mean within 30 minutes of journey of the city by public transport. This expression describes Arakanga forest reserve in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. As a peri-urban forest there are growing settlements developing close to the forest in view of the benefits derivable from the forest. This is in addition to the interaction with the urban economy. The values of a peri-urban Forest transcend the valuation of forests as land banks as hitherto was the perception of early settlers. The list of goods and services that urban forestry and peri-urban forestry can provide is impressive. Trees and green spaces help keep cities cool, act as natural filters and noise absorbers; improve microclimates and protect and improve the quality of natural resources, including soil, water, vegetation and wildlife. Trees contribute significantly to the aesthetic appeal of cities, thereby helping to maintain the psychological health of their inhabitants. Beyond ecological and aesthetic benefits, urban forestry has a role in helping resource – poor populations meet basic needs. This therefore underscores the importance of this study with the following objectives: